Week 15: Workout A (Day 72 of Transformation Challenge)

15Aug

Week 15: 8/15/11

Surprised myself with today’s session. I did not get a good amount of sleep (probably around 4-5 hours) because my son kept me up late last night and when I finally was able to sleep I kept waking up every 2 hours! I was not able to reach my calorie goal this weekend also.
I was really expecting to have a pathetic session because of the above reasons but it was much better than expected.

This weekend I was rewatching a YouTube vid series by Matt Wenning of Elite Fitness System on squats called: So you think you can squat? I also was reading 16 Ways to maximize your Glute Ham Raise by Dave Tate. This got me to think that I should add the Glute Ham Raise (GHR) as part of my pre-workout warm-up to help improve my lifts. So I started off today with my regular foam rolling and some dynamic stretches for mobility work and then did some GHR, 2 sets and goal was 2 sets of 10 using body weight at first then progress to slowly add weight to it. It was painful!
I think I will also start incorporating seated good-mornings and reverse hypers (once I find the machine at the gym to do the reverse hypers). To help assist on my lifts. Also will try to add Standing Ab Pull Downs to help strengthen my core. I may buy some bands so I can do ab pull downs at home.
So this weekend I learned some things to help improve my lifts and very happy on educating myself on that.

Decent workout today even though I stalled in some of them. I think in the end it was a good learning trying out these new assistance exercises.

I think the GHR and seated good mornings helped a bit today. No hip and lower back pain/soreness throughout the lift. Only soreness I noticed was my right ankle have a bit of a sprain feeling to it but it went away quickly.
The only thing that have me really upset with today’s squat session is that my mind weakened on me and stopped me from doing the last rep on sets 2 and 3! It was really disappointing that I gave up on myself, mentally!
Other than that I think my form was much better than the last 2 sessions.
My Elbows are kept up most of the time and my chest are up as well.
I descended into the hole in a much more controlled manner as well and kept the bar secure on my back.
Sometimes I would just progress anyway to +5 lbs next session due to such a close call on the reps but i think I need to mentally build myself up and deload for the 1st time since switching to 3×5 from 5×5. I know my body can do the lifts but I need to train my mind as well so a deload should help build me up so I can be both physically and mentally ready for the progress that is to come.

Overhead Press:

Finally hit a PR on overhead press! 2 sets of 5 that I never did before! Would have been so much better if I was able to get that last rep but my body just gave up on me.
Even though it’s a stall and only missed 1 rep I will consider this a stall. This will give me time to improve my form better and get stronger as well. OHP is such a tough lift and usually is the lift that I stall numerous times on and early.
May as well milk it before I add another +5 lbs to it.
Think once I do my 1st deload since switching from 5×5 to 3×5 I will start microloading also.

Power Cleans:

I think it is getting better but still need some work.
Trying to keep the time between reps less and surprised myself by not getting dizzy this time.

Deadlift:

I had to mentally get myself prepared on this big time. talked to myself in my head telling myself: “Self, you better get this done with a quickness or I will kick your ass!”. i think that little mental psyche out helped me a bit.
This is the fastest I did the set with little time between reps. I think doing it quickly like this made the lift a bit easier to do also compared to havign a ton of time between reps which I have done in previous sessions.
Think my form is not too bad except for the last rep.
I am just happy to try and get a PR next session now!

Pull-up:

I was doing great on my 1st and 2nd set.
Then somehow I slowed down and lost momentum when I was trying to get my last rep and was unable to complete it.
Will try again with the exact same weight next session.

Prone Bridge:

This damn burns as usual but did not feel as weak like last time.
Starting to get bored of this accessory exercise and may replace it with Ab Pull Downs one day.